Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Myriad's Ways - in SCOTUS's sights

The Supreme Court has been collecting amicus (friend of the court) briefs and has put the matter of the AMP v. Myriad appeal on its calendar for a conference. This means that they will consider the request by AMP and the other plaintiffs/petitioners for review of the decision of the CAFC (the appellate court that most recently heard and decided the case). We should therefore know in December or at the latest early in the new year whether they will listen to an appeal.

One brief, by the Cancer Council of Australia, includes language I helped draft, as well as a reference to my book. While no one can predict with certainty what the Supreme Court will do, I have a strong suspicion they will choose to listen to the case, both due to its importance regarding medicine, but also because it serves as a good follow-up case to the Mayo case we have discussed here, which involved patentability of laws of nature. The Myriad appeal will give the Supreme Court a chance to make clear their position on products of nature as well. My friends at Patent Docs have collected links to all the briefs here.

** UPDATE** The Supreme Court had granted the petition for certiorari, which means it will hear the appeal!